Women at Work

The politicians who decided to dispossess Japanese Canadians were a small number of wealthy, white men. However, carrying out the decisions of those leading men required many more people working as secretaries, administrative assistants, and bureaucrats.

From 1942–1949 the Office of the Custodian of Enemy Property in Vancouver carried out the daily tasks and paperwork that the dispossession required. For its entire duration, the majority of the office staff were women. One of these women was Mrs. Alma Graham McArthur and she played an important role in the dispossession.

McArthur was one of the first female lawyers in Manitoba and early in her career she advocated for women’s property rights. Later in life, this expertise made her valuable to the government office entrusted with the property of Japanese Canadians.

McArthur worked for the Custodian of Enemy Property from 1942 to 1949. She rose to a supervisory position and by the second half of the decade was one of the office’s highest paid employees. Her boss, Frank G. Shears wrote, “no one has … been more loyal in seeking to carry out the responsibilities of this office.”

McArthur was let go from her position as the office downsized at the end of the 1940s. Shears tried to get her a position at the expanding Citizenship Office. However, opportunities for married women were disappearing. McArthur could not get a job because she had a working husband. Newly opened positions would be given to male soldiers returning home from war.

The war gave some women unique work opportunities. McArthur’s job was to help perpetrate injustice. By working in a racist government project, McArthur was able to momentarily overcome sexist employment barriers.